Eva M. Clayton: “some in Congress have demonized the poor, that they have become the poster children for all that is wrong in America.…”

“some in Congress have demonized the poor, that they have become the poster children for all that is wrong in America. They have convinced the American people that the welfare mothers and their children have caused a great debt that our Nation has acquired. They have now made the new Joan of Arc out of the teenaged mothers. Just last week, what do they want to do when they say teenaged children are having children? The President asks for $30 million, and they did not give one cent. They would rather spend $6.4 billion after the child has a child. Yet, this week, what do we do for children? If you have a child, we are going to make sure we take your children off of welfare. We will teach the teenaged mother you must not do this, but when we have a chance to make a difference in their lives we do absolutely nothing. H.R. 3734 is a mean way to reform. Yes, we need reform, and certainly the Castle-Tanner bill is a better way to reform, not the bill that is going to be introduced. This is antichildren, anti the poor. We should do better in this Nation, rather than to demonize the most vulnerable of our Nation.”